COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTIONOur flagship year-round release WINDVANE stands strong through all types of weather and is a great fit for all seasons. Pouring a deep brilliant red, this is your go-to beer. If you want something hoppy, you definitely have it. American hops give WINDVANE a swift bitterness with piney, citrus and resinous flavors. If you want something with strong malt shoulders, you have that too. Roast malt layers add complexity and keeps the beer dry to showcase the hops.

Pour color is a very nice amber and red hue. Aroma is too strong of hops and dry hop notes for a red, has a metalic note with no malt backbone on the nose. Tatse is too bitter with no malt balance for the hops and has an astringent metallic finish. Close but not quite on this one, tone down the hops and boost the malt and it will be great.

Cloudy rust color with large foamy head. Citrus hops on the nose. Wow, surprising taste. Wasn't expecting it to be so hop-forward, which is a good thing. Has a west coast grapefruity hop flavor and balanced nicely with caramel-biscuit malts. Pleasantly surprised with this one. A hopped up easy-drinking amber ale.
---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Pint at Happy Gnome - pour is reddish brown, but relatively light in color...medium whitish head. Aroma is sweet and lightly hopped - a slight note of roasted nuts in the background as well. Flavor is quite tasty...sweet, caramely malts are accented by mild, but notable resinous hops. Palate is easy drinking (granted, I had a number of higher ABV beers before this one) - I would happily quaff another in the future!

I am going to have to dissent from my fellow raters (to date) on this. This red ale looked decent enough, except for the cottage cheese-style head. But I really didn’t enjoy it. The first third of the pint was harsh, with low flavor (pine) and harshly astringent finishing notes. The second third was a bit better as it warmed, in that it showed that it had some malt, but those too weren’t rich and complex. The third of the pint...I left on the table. And, for what it offered, it was too high in the abv department--why go up to 6% in a hop-driven amber ale? 4.5% would have been just fine. Not to my liking, at all. (on tap, Grand Central, St. Paul)

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